Jobless claims: Another 712,000 Americans filed new unemployment claims

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Source: Yahoo! Finance

Yahoo Finance

Jobless claims: Another 712,000 Americans filed new unemployment claims

Emily McCormick·Reporter
Thu, March 11, 2021, 8:30 AM

U.S. states saw new jobless claims drop to a fresh four-month low last week, as impending spring weather and more vaccine-driven business reopenings allow hiring to pick up.

The Department of Labor released its weekly report on new jobless claims on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Here were the main metrics included in the report, compared to consensus data compiled by Bloomberg:

-- Initial jobless claims, week ended March 6: 712,000 vs. 725,000 expected vs. 745,000 during the prior week

-- Continuing claims, week ended February 27: 4.144 million vs. 4.200 million expected vs. 4.295 million during the prior week

Initial unemployment claims were expected to hold below 800,000 for a third consecutive week, following a stretch of elevated claims around the holidays earlier this year. Still, claims remain well above even the Great Recession-era high of 665,000 weekly claims in March 2009.

And new claims are more than likely to continue dropping into the spring and summer, assuming the vaccine rollout and improving COVID-19 case counts extend into the coming months. Companies like Disney (DIS) have recently discussed plans to bring back thousands of furloughed workers in the spring, as more discretionary activities like theme parks and restaurants and resorts are permitted to reopen with easing capacity constraints. And last Friday's February jobs report showed that the economy added nearly double the number of payrolls expected for the month, affirming the hiring upturn in the service sector.

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Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/weekly-jobless-claims-week-ended-march-6-2021-pandemic-190216464.html

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1. From the source:

https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf

News Release

Connect with DOL at
https://blog.dol.gov

TRANSMISSION OF MATERIALS IN THIS RELEASE IS EMBARGOED UNTIL
8:30 A.M. (Eastern) Thursday, March 11, 2021

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending March 6, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 712,000, a decrease of 42,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 9,000 from 745,000 to 754,000. The 4-week moving average was 759,000, a decrease of 34,000 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 2,250 from 790,750 to 793,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.9 percent for the week ending February 27, a decrease of 0.2 percentage point from the previous week's revised rate. The previous week's rate was revised up by 0.1 from 3. to 3.1 percent. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending February 27 was 4,144,000, a decrease of 193,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up 42,000 from 4,295,000 to 4,337,000. The 4-week moving average was 4,355,000, a decrease of 103,500 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 10,500 from 4,448,000 to 4,458,500.

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UNADJUSTED DATA

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The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending February 20 was 20,116,302, an increase of 2,087,376 from the previous week. There were 2,136,741 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2020.

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Weekly Claims Archives
Weekly Claims Data

U.S. Department of Labor news materials are accessible at http://www.dol.gov. The Department's Reasonable Accommodation Resource Center converts Departmental information and documents into alternative formats, which include Braille and large print. For alternative format requests, please contact the Department at [phone] (voice) or [phone] (federal relay).

U.S. Department of Labor
Employment and Training Administration
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Release Number: USDL 21-420-NAT

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